Monthly Archives: March 2018

New Enemy!

Introducing the Tiny Cube (Better names on the forums please).

Currently only spawning in Survival Mode as they are something of an experiment the Tiny Cube is the first of many new eneemies to go in the game. I’m planning on rolling them out one or two at a time so I can gather feedback on each one as I balance them.

Tiny Cubes are slightly faster than their larger cousin but cannot Charge and are not guarenteed to kill the player on touch. They have a large health pool and high armour with a slow regeneration. They explode on death damaging enemies within 500 units. They sometimes get stuck in walls when they spawn (known issue).

There will be more forms of Cube enemy being added to the game in the future with the Tiny Cube being the smallest, least dangerous and cutest.

GRID Changes

This update will invalidate GRID save games as the new data structure isn’t compatible with the old one.

The Administrator AI has a new ICE deeck to play with. This version is more modular with more low-cost cards for it to play. This should mean that there is more variety in the exact kind of enemies that get spawned on each Server. This will be a constantly changing process over the rest of development so is by no means final.

Bonus Objectives

Each Server now has 3 Bonus Objectives to be achieved. Similar to the very first version of GRID that ever existed theese objectives are currently stat driven although I have plans for more complex objectives later on.

Whenever a Server is generated the Admin will play 3 unique Objective cards on it to create that servers Objectives. There are currently only 4 possible objectives available but this number will increease in the future. Ideas for future objectives are welcomed so please post them in the forums.

Progress towards an objective is saved so you don’t have to complete them in a single run.

Wanted Level

GRID mode no longer uses the same dynamic difficulty system as Arcade mode and instead now uses a Wanted Level system.

At Wanted Level 0 only Passive enemies will spawn representing the Server at rest. Once you start damaging subsystems however they will send out a call for help pumping the Wanted Level up to one and allowing the AI to start spawning more aggressive enemies.

If you don’t attack any Subsystems for a while your wanted level will decrease and it can eventually return to zero. This is unrelated to the Trace mechanic which can only be halted by disconnecting.

Wanted Levels are reduced by:

Player Death

Building Control Nodes

If 20 seconds has passed without an increase to Wanted Level.

Changelist

General

Camera now tries to keep important actors on screen such as Subsystems and Triggers.

All Enemies that follow the player can now use Navmesh Pathfinding if they cannot reach the players location.

Cube Avoidance has been improved.

Arcade Mode

Can now choose which type of Arena to play in on the Arcade mode screen.

Added new “Tiny Cube” enemy to Survival Arcade mode (experimental).

GRID Mode

GRID now uses a “Wanted Level” system for controlling Enemy Spawning.

All Servers in GRID now have Bonus Objectives that can be attempted.

Server ICE has been rebalanced.

UI

Time Extend message now correctly displays the time.

Keybinds settings screen added for keyboard and controller.

Added on-screen prompt for triggers that need to be “used” to activate.

Objective tracker added to GRID HUD.

Controllers now use a virtual Cursor to interact with the menus.

Bug Fixes

Fix for potential crash when using Emergency Teleport when being Charged by a Cube.

ToDo

These are things that look like bugs but in fact need to be implemented (usually because the UI already has space for the feature).

Upgrades display not currently functioning.

No Gameover when fatal brain damage incurred during GRID.

Attached Hardware display not functioning.

Clicking on Installed ICE doesn’t do anything.

Nothing is awarded for clearing Servers.

Dive mode doesn’t use Harder Room Styles as Player gets Deeper.

Known Issues

Some AMD Graphics cards crash on Startup. This is related to UE-51650[issues.unrealengine.com] There is nothing I can do about this at this time.